Archive for the ‘pasta’ Category

Zucchini, tomatoes and basil tossed with rigatoni–this pasta dish makes excellent use of later summer produce. I have made this pasta a few times over the past several weeks and have come to prefer it without the cheese (or with less cheese) and with less pasta in relation to the vegetables. Don’t leave out the fresh basil–that is key to the flavor. If you want to replace the fontina with another cheese, you can.

Pesto made with broccoli rabe is pretty popular and it is also super nutritious. You can serve the pesto as a dip or spread for bread instead of as a sauce for pasta. I followed a recipe from Mario Batali’s Molto Gusto. If you follow the link, you will not only find the recipe, but a clip of Mario demonstrating its preparation along with that of two other pasta recipes (pasta with pureed red peppers and goat cheese and pasta with Swiss chard).

The original recipe called for orecchiette pasta, but I substituted farfalle and added in some heirloom grape tomatoes. Later, I served leftovers as a salad, with the addition of more blanched broccoli rabe and some cannellini beans.

The pesto is exceptionally good. I made twice as much pesto as I needed for the pasta, and I have been enjoying leftovers spread onto challah along with lemon chummus.

This recipe is from before Pesach, when I was trying to use up little bits of this and that chometz. I whipped this together right before Shabbos, so I just glanced at the recipe for inspiration and then did my own thing in the kitchen.

For a thrown together salad, it was a surprisingly huge hit. I think this will be especially nice to serve for Shabbos lunch when the weather gets really hot.

Tofu makes a nice change of pace when you can’t eat meat or chicken, and don’t want fish.

The key thing is to prepare the tofu in a way that maximizes its texture and allows it to absorb lots of flavor.

Frying is ideal, because it renders the exterior golden, crunch/chewy, and the interior tender and porous enough to absorb any sauce. The critical thing is to thoroughly dry the tofu on paper towels for quite some time before frying it so that the oil doesn’t splatter so much when the tofu hits the pan. The other thing is to fry for a long time, letting the tofu interior dry out and get porous, and the exterior get evenly golden and crispy/chewy. If you just sear the exterior, the inside of the tofu will still be cottony and wet and it will not soak up sauce very well.

Tofu is tastiest, I think, when it is fried, although baked tofu is also delicious (plus easier to make).

If you cut the tofu into cubes before baking or frying, you end up with yummy nuggets that are perfect for adding to pasta salad (or any salad).

For an appetizer, homemade cheese blintzes with strawberry compote and sour cream

The rest of the meal consisted of oven poached salmon, asparagus with lemon dressing (Judy Zeidler, The Gourmet Jewish Cook), quinoa with mint and tomato, cucumber salad, leaf salad (Salad with a Crunch), and penne with smoked mozzarella and basil for one meal and macaroni and cheese for another meal.

Oh, and for another meal, I served lentil soup and a quiche made from farmers cheese, jack cheese, and sauteed mushrooms and shallots. The lentil soup was from Judy Zeidler’s book, and the quiche was also (but I swapped out the scallions called for in the original recipe with the mushrooms and shallots because that is what I had in the fridge).